


Just a Smile Undoes Him

by unholystagepresence



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: After Kirkwall, F/M, Fluff, King Alistair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 04:21:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19349398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unholystagepresence/pseuds/unholystagepresence
Summary: Returning home after a spat is scary, especially when your wife is very handy with a blade.





	Just a Smile Undoes Him

**Author's Note:**

> Something thought up after hearing King Alistair's 'Ball and Chain' comment in DA2. It didn't sound affectionate to me...so I figured I'd make it make sense.

Alistair had to admit, he was a bit...nervous about returning to Denerim from the Free Marches. It wasn’t that he’d preferred the northern states (too dry, and Ferelden would always be home, no matter where he traveled), but returning to his queen after the way they parted?

He’d be surprised if he kept his head within the first hour.  
  
Oh sure, she was the love of his life, and they perhaps got along better than any other King or Queen ever had, but one couldn’t be married without a few spats here and there. He couldn’t even remember what had started the one preceding his departure, only that they had not made up before he left, and he was well aware how long Madeline could hold a grudge.  
  
He rested his forehead against the bedroom door and took a deep breath. He knew she was in there by the sound of snores from Maric, no doubt sprawled at the foot of the bed once again despite his protests. Perhaps that had been the start of it.  
  
_‘Alright Alistair, you’re not afraid of her, remember? She may have killed an Archdemon, a high dragon, defeated Loghain in single combat...nope, not helping, still terrified.’_  
  
There was no point in stalling any further. If she ordered him to go sleep in the kennels, then so be it, but it was best to get it over with so that he had a chance at claiming the dry hay for himself.  
  
The door creaked slightly as he entered, and Maric opened an eye (from his spot on the bed, as Alistair had suspected) before closing it and resuming his snoring. And, Maker be praised, there was his wife, fast asleep in bed.  
  
It hit him, as it always did after a long absence from her side, how beautiful she was. The way her auburn hair spilled across the pillow, the softness of her lips, parted slightly as she breathed. His heart ached as he realized that he had missed her, his fear and the remains of his irritation bleeding away like so much flotsam.  
  
Maric kicked and snorted, and this caused Madeline to stir, her eyes opening and blinking as she glanced towards where he stood in the doorway, mesmerized. And then she smiled, and he thought he might weep. Yes, this was the girl he’d given a rose picked from Lothering (and a rose garden in the castle, just to see her smile like that again), the smile that had stolen his heart when she’d first turned it on him, all because of some silly, stupid joke he’d let slip past his lips.  
  
“Alistair...” Were his eyes getting misty? He’d deny it if anyone asked, though he was sure everyone already knew just how tightly he was wrapped around his Queen’s finger.  
  
He finally entered, letting the door shut quietly behind him, and leaned over his wife, brushing some hair from her face and pressing a kiss to her forehead. She hummed, perhaps too tired to remember that they were still, technically, fighting. Thank Andraste for small mercies.  
  
“Go back to sleep my love.”  
  
Another hum in reply, and she nuzzled into the pillow while he moved to the other side of the bed to crawl in, etching the feeling of her against him into his memory, and trying not to let the fact that he couldn’t stretch out his legs far enough bother him.  
  
In the morning, he’d beg her forgiveness and add a few more bushes to her rose garden.  
  
And put in an order for a larger bed.


End file.
